Train end users to use the search-first environment (SharePoint Server 2010)

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2011-05-23

After a search-first migration, end users can continue to perform tasks in the original server farm and use familiar Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 features and functionality. When users conduct searches, they have the additional advantage of new search features and functionality in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

For brevity in this article, the following terms are used:

Original farm

The SharePoint Server 2007 farm that the organization is using in a production environment, with SharePoint enterprise search deployed.

New farm

A new SharePoint Server 2010 farm that you deploy and initially use only for the search-first migration.

Search-first environment

An environment in which a search-first migration is complete. In this environment, end users can use SharePoint Server 2010 search-query features and search-results features when they submit search queries in the original farm or the new farm.

It is important to educate users about what they can do with the enhanced search capabilities in the search-first environment, and to explain to users how to navigate when they perform searches in the new environment. The search system displays pages in the original farm or the new farm depending on users' actions, and this might confuse users at first. This section provides information that you can use to help users understand how to use the capabilities in a search-first environment.

In a search-first environment, end users can submit search queries from search boxes in the original farm or in the new farm. Typically, a user initiates a query from a search box in the original farm because that is the main SharePoint working environment. If the query uses a contextual scope (that is, the This Site scope or the This List scope), the user’s Web browser displays the results on a search results page in the original farm. In that case, there is no change in the way that the user goes from site to site, because all of the navigation stays in the original farm and works in the familiar way.

On the other hand, if the search query does not use a contextual scope, the user’s Web browser displays the results on a search results page in the new farm. Similarly, when a user clicks an Advanced Search link in the original farm to perform an advanced search, the user’s Web browser displays an Advanced Search page in the new farm. The user types the search parameters on the Advanced Search page in the new farm and submits the query there. The search system displays the results on a search results page in the new farm.

After viewing the search results in the new farm, the user can do any of the following:

Click the Back button in the browser to return to the site in the original farm or the new farm where the user typed the query.

Click a Did You Mean or Related Searches link to get suggestions for related searches.

Use the Refinement Panel on the search results page in the new farm to narrow the search results.

Type a new search query in the search box on the search results page in the new farm.

Click a search result on the search results page in the new farm.

In a search-first environment, when a user clicks a search result, the user’s Web browser displays the site that hosts the content, whether the site is in the original farm or the new farm. SharePoint content is typically located in the original farm because content has not been migrated to the new farm yet. However, if you brought user profiles into the new farm to crawl them and host them on My Sites there, the corresponding content is in the new farm. For more information, see "Plan people search" in the article Plan to configure the SharePoint Server 2010 farm for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010). The user can continue to work as usual after the system displays the search-result content.

End users have access to SharePoint Server 2010 search features, whether they type queries in the original farm or in the new farm. The following table summarizes the new search query features that are available, depending on the way that you configured the search-first migration.

End users can take advantage of this Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 search feature

The following table describes the conditions under which end users have access to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 search functionality when they view search results.

When an end user submits a query in a non-custom search box in the original farm

The results are displayed on a search results page in

Are Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 features available when viewing search results?

And the query does not use a contextual scope

The new farm

Yes: for example, results refinement and relevance improvements

And the query uses a contextual scope*

The original farm

No

*To use a contextual scope for a search on SharePoint content that is in the original farm, the user must submit the search query from a search box in the original farm. When typing a query in a non-custom search box in the new farm, it is not possible to specify a contextual scope to search SharePoint content that is in the original farm.

Users might be accustomed to the appearance and behavior of Search Centers in the original farm, and to customizations that the organization applied there. Search Centers in the new farm provide refinement capability and might have other look-and-feel differences from Search Centers in the original farm. In addition, the new farm might have fewer Search Centers than the original farm. For more information, see "Plan Search Center deployment" in the article Plan to configure the SharePoint Server 2010 farm for search-first migration (SharePoint Server 2010).

Many navigation paths and shortcuts that are used in the original farm will also be different or unavailable in the new farm. This is because the new farm is a different farm and because it has less SharePoint content than the original farm.